Walton War

The Orphan Strip is the name given to a small, twelve-mile-wide strip of land bordering North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia[4] in what is currently Transylvania County, North Carolina. This piece of land was given the name because none of its bordering states accepted to govern it, and for a period of time it was considered no-man's land. South Carolina initially governed the land, but it was ceded to the federal government after the American Revolution, in 1787. In turn, the federal government gave the land to the Cherokee of the area, who gave it back to the federal government in 1798.[3] At this time, the land was not under the direct control of any state, and settlers with land grants from South Carolina or North Carolina began to settle there.[2]

Following the Revolutionary War, the new federal government encouraged states to cede their claims of land (dating to colonial charters) between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains to the United States.[2] After the Yazoo land scandal in Georgia, Georgia finally ceded its claimed land, which now makes up Alabama and Mississippi, to the federal government in return for the orphan strip in 1802. This cession was finalized in 1802 with the Act of Cession, in which Georgia was given small pieces of land including the Orphan Strip. The act did not clarify whether the region was to be governed by North Carolina or Georgia, and it did not define state boundaries.[3] When both North Carolina and Georgia claimed ownership of the orphan strip, a confrontation occurred and they called out armed militia to dominate in the area.

After the Orphan Strip was ceded to Georgia in 1802, settlers living there became confused and wanted protection.[5] In 1803, Georgia created Walton County for the settlers living in the region. This new county was named after George Walton, a senator[3] and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. Historians still debate whether Georgia created Walton County to provide order for the settlers or to compete with North Carolina, but its creation evoked serious confusion and conflict in the small Orphan Strip. Settlers with land grants from South Carolina accepted the new Georgian government and rejected North Carolina's Buncombe County government. By contrast, settlers with land grants from North Carolina rejected the Walton County government.[2] This difference in allegiances was a minor problem at first, but when the Walton County government tried to collect taxes, the problem developed into a much larger issue.

Because Georgia was not willing to accept the 1807 commission's conclusion, Georgia hired prominent surveyor Andrew Ellicott to survey the boundary once again.[3] Ellicott reinforced what the commission had found and marked the location of the border at Ellicott's Rock on the east bank of the Chattooga River.[4]

In 1971, in what some press reports called a symbolic, humorous dispute, the two states briefly revisited the issue. A Georgia legislative panel declared that the state did in fact have authority over part of the old Orphan Strip.[2] North Carolina legislators responded by authorizing the governor to mobilize the National Guard to defend the area, but no troops were mobilized.[3] The matter was soon allowed to drop again, with no change to any boundaries. In 1992 the state of North Carolina erected a historical highway marker along U.S. Route 276 southeast of Brevard to commemorate the dispute.[9]